The Side-Effects
by OgichiRocks
Summary: Bruce convinces Tony to test out an experimental vaccine for a disease Tony doesn't even have, and some things go wrong. Featuring a Tony-centric story, all of the Avengers, minor character appearances, spot-the-reference games, and more! No pairings that aren't canon, except slight Pepperoni, and Clintasha...but not really... Rated for dramatic and gruesome (rare) scenes.
1. Tony gets drugged

**A new story for all of you that liked my last story 'The Not-So-Invincible Tony Stark' **

**This story is going to be a little bit more light-hearted, and much more Avengers funny moments, but I assure you there will definitely be 'dark' parts, and it is mostly Tony-centric, with a little of Bruce, Steve, and Thor, along with multiple expected appearances of everyone else.**

**First chapter is kind of long, as I started writing this a long time ago and it doesn't really kick off with plot until a little ways in.**

**I hope you like it so far, review with suggestions and likes and stuff, and if you haven't already, check out my other Tony-centric story on my page!**

**One last important thing! If you spot the song reference I've hidden in the chapter, tell me in a review and if you're first then you can do one of three things: 1. Name a character you would like me to write a fanfic about. 2. Tell me what should happen in the next chapter (within reason) 3. choose your own thing! Search on!**

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Stark Towers was alive with activity as all the Avengers were gathered for their first yearly reunion party. Tony had had the idea for one, and soon a date was set. It was the same day that they had closed the portal Loki had opened, only one year had passed since. Tony, liquor glass in hand, walked around the room, greeting his friends in turn.

"Hey Natasha, long time no see. Sure you weren't just spinning a web in the attic?" Tony quickly dodged the punch that was aimed at his head. He lost his balance and nearly toppled onto Bruce who was standing behind him. "Hey Banner, ready for some science?"

"Not today Tony. Do you have a place where I could maybe sit in quiet? It's a bit loud in here." Tony noticed his fellow scientists hands were twitching nervously.

"Sure bud, go through that door over there." Tony pointed in the general direction of a door across the room. Bruce thanked him and, back hunched, turned and walked away.

Thor sauntered up then, holding a pint of beer and grinning like a madman.

"Greetings my brother." He swung his free hand around and pounded Tony on the back, causing him to cough and splutter.

"Hey meatswing, your swing is still…meaty?" Tony attempted at humor as his back throbbed from Thor's hit. Luckily, Thor had moved on to talk to Natasha and saved Tony another attempt at a snarky comment.

"Mr. Stark. Nice to see you again." Steve walked up, saluting Tony. Always formal.

"Nice to see you too Stripes." Tony recovered from his temporary humor lapse caused by Thor's hand. He gave the captain a mock salute in return. He was about to let loose another humorous comment when Clint seemed to drop from above, landing right in between Steve and Tony.

"Sorry, am I interrupting anything?" His snide remark left Tony unscathed, but Steve looked horrified at the reference to his sexual affiliation. "No harm meant! It's good to see you guys again." Clint held up his hands to calm Steve down.

"How did you just drop from the ceiling? There isn't even anywhere to hide up there." Tony was staring at the ceiling that Clint had 'fallen from'. It was smooth and not a rafter was to be seen. "How is that-"

"Skills man. You just gotta do it." Clint gave Tony a tap on the arm, then saluted Steve and headed over to Natasha who was talking to Thor.

Once Tony decided he had greeted everyone satisfactorily, he headed over to Pepper and hung by her and the bar for the rest of the night. Eventually everyone decided it was time to call it a night and retire to their individual suites.

Tony waved the last person out, and as the elevator doors finally closed, he turned and tugged Pepper in by her waist. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and they started walking towards his room, and the big, soft, mattress.

Tony awoke to the thick smell of smoke. He immediately shot up and began searching for the source, the fire alarm came on just as he made it to the door. He hadn't even made it to the kitchen before he was soaked through with icy water from the sprinklers. He held up his hand to shield his eyes from the onslaught of water, just in time to run into a certain blonde haired god.

"Ouch, Thor, it's too early to be setting fires." Tony rubbed his shoulder where the god had hit him.

"I am sorry to wake you Stark, but I believe you should, um, go back to bed!" Thor stumbled over his words and looked a little nervous, so Tony disregarded his request and kept asking questions.

"Wait, you didn't actually start the fire, did you?" Tony began to look around the rest of the room for the source of the smoke, but was grabbed roughly on the shoulders and spun back to his room.

"I am sorry man of iron, I did not mean to wake you. Although I really believe it would be in your best interest to remain in your room until the matter is cleared up."

"Thor, what are you doing?Why are you pushing Tony around?" Natasha walked up, holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the spray of the sprinklers, and Thor dropped his hands from the shoulders of the enraged scientist.

"Um… well, I, I accidentally set the kitchen area on fire. I was trying to make everybody a good breakfast like that of my home." Thor looked so humiliated that Natasha smirked and Tony rolled his eyes. All this commotion for a measly grease fire, and the sprinklers probably ruined half his furniture.

"Hey, I heard the alarm, what's happened?" Steve ran into the room, quickly getting soaked like the others.

"JARVIS, turn off the sprinklers." Tony glanced at Steve then looked pointedly at Thor. "Point break here had a wonderful breakfast planned for us, but it looks like the unexpected rain storm has changed our plans."

"Oh."

"What the- Tony, did you try to make me an omelet again?" Pepper had walked in from the elevator, nearly slipping on the wet floors. "I thought we talked about that."

"NO! It was Thor, he tried to make breakfast this time!" Tony looked like a five year old trying to blame something on his older brother, he even extended his arm and pointed at the God. But Thor's expression of humility told Pepper that Tony was telling the truth. This time.

"I promise that I will clean all of the mess I have made. I am so sorry man of iron."

"Yeah, whatever, at least I don't have to take a shower anymore!" Tony brightened, then he sauntered into the blackened kitchen and attempted to make a coffee in the twisted black plastic that was the coffee brewer. After a few attempts, and some unwanted advice from Clint, who had managed to not show up until after the whole ordeal, Tony gave up and decided to take everyone out for brunch. After all, it was Sunday.

The whole team walked into the diner that they had flown to in the quinjet. The normal hum of conversation stopped as people noticed whose presence they were being graced with. The Avengers ignored the attention (except for Bruce, who offered a meager wave) and sat down in a row taking up the entire bar. The waitress, looking a bit flustered and embarrassed, took their extremely large order.

"I'll have three eggs, over easy, a side of hash browns - or should it be bacon - you know what? Hash browns and bacon, and a coffee." Tony's order was first, the waitress frantically trying to keep up with his fast paced and decisive speech.

"I would like a full breakfast from this beautiful midgardian eatery please." The waitress looked a little scared of Thor's booming voice and Pepper leaned over to clear up the confusion.

"He just means the number one. And I'll have an omelet and some coffee please." The waitress seemed to calm down a little bit as Pepper spoke.

"I'll take something with a lot of calories, please." Bruce didn't like ordering at restaurants.

"The eggs and bacon with some coffee for me miss." Steve gave the waitress a smile and her face turned bright red, Clint nearly fell off his stool he was laughing so hard, Steve looked at him with confusion. "What?"

"No-nothing, just, never mind. I'll have a cheeseburger." Clint got stares from the rest of the team. He glared back and stuck with his order.

"I'll have an omelet." Natasha's no nonsense order completed the group and the waitress ran into the kitchen to deliver the - long - receipt to the chef.

Half an hour later, the team was munching on their delicious food and the restaurant had cleared out due to the loud nature of - someones - voice.

The team finished their breakfast's and returned to Stark Tower, fortunately they didn't run into any problems on the way. Natasha and Clint had to report to SHIELD for some top secret mission, so they dropped everyone off on the helicopter pad and then flew off. Thor was due for a movie marathon with Darcy, and he invited Steve along too, the girl was trying to get both men updated on all of the references. Bruce was close to a breakthrough on some disease vaccine, so he removed himself to his private lab for the rest of the day. Pepper stated she would be attending an important board meeting later ("On a Sunday?!" Tony had complained), so nobody was to interrupt her. Which left Tony by himself.

"At least you can't leave me JARVIS." Tony poured himself a glass of whiskey on the rocks.

"I wouldn't dream of it, sir." The cool voice of the AI filtered down to Tony's ears as he downed the liquid in one gulp, pouring himself another just as quickly. "Might I recommend less drinking, sir? It is only eleven in the morning."

"JARVIS, first of all it's five o'clock somewhere, and second, I'm fine, it takes more than two glasses of whiskey to get me drunk." Tony set down the bottle and carried his glass to the elevator, pressing the button for his own lab.

The elevator doors dinged open and Tony strode out. A small smile could be seen at the corner of his mouth when the familiar hum of the room returned with the lights and holographic displays.

"It's good to be home." Tony swung into his chair and waved his hand, turning on the multiple monitors around him. They flashed to life and another, quieter, hum started up. Tony loved the hum of his lab, it had become a comforting and almost soothing sound to him. He spun in his chair and gulped the rest of the whiskey down, rattling the ice cubes in the glass he set it down and began to type. The genius hadn't yet decided what exactly he wanted to work on yet, so he began by looking through various older projects that he hadn't seen in a while.

"Sir, Miss Potts is on her way." JARVIS toned.

"Alright." Tony selected a design he thought would be interesting to continue and threw it to one of the hologram tables nearby. The door to the lab slid open as he walked over to where the hologram of an odd contraption was floating.

"I just came down to tell you I'm leaving for the board meeting." Pepper had her business dress on and was holding a lot of papers and files of various sorts.

"That's nice to know." Tony turned his attention to the stunningly beautiful Pepper Potts. "Will you be back late?"

"Probably, you won't be up." Pepper replied.

"I think I might be." Tony took a step closer, but at that moment Pepper's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket. With an apologetic glance she answered the phone and began walking to the elevator.

"Yes, I'm on my way now….Sorry, will do, no problem…..Thanks, bye." The elevator arrived and Pepper waved to Tony, but he was already engrossed in his project, and didn't see her.

"JARVIS, run diagnostics on this piece." Tony spoke to the hidden speakers, and a line of numbers and letters began scrolling across the tabletop underneath the hologram. "Now where did I put the model of this…" Tony trailed off, searching the room around him. The hologram showed an odd tube shaped mechanical device that looked somewhat like a syringe. Next to it, on the hologram there was a chemical compound shown in a series of dizzying dots and lines.

Tony kicked around a few random pieces of metal on the ground and paced over to a box that had been pushed into a corner. He rooted through the box and finally pulled out a model of the thing shown on the hologram behind him. He then walked over to a row of freezers and pulled out a vial of shimmery silver liquid.

"Diagnostics are complete, sir. The chemical compound know as 'Zirnium' appears to be stable." Tony grunted in acknowledgment and went back to his workbench, depositing the two things on top. "It appears Doctor Banner is arriving on the elevator, sir."

"Thanks JARVIS."

The elevator doors pinged once more and out stepped Bruce Banner.

"Hey, Tony, I was wondering what project you were working on." The doctor walked over to Tony's hologram display and began reading the diagnostics.

"It's a chemical synthesis I created called Zirnium, It's supposed to give the user extremely heightened senses for a short amount of time. I actually came up with it a long time ago, but never had the need to use it. Wait, why do you ask?" Tony suddenly became suspicious of his friend's actions.

"I was actually wondering if you would come down to my lab and help me with something, it shouldn't take too long, I need more than one pair of hands for this." Bruce smiled sheepishly.

"What is it?" Tony asked bluntly. He didn't really mind helping the scientist, but he had been kind of excited about testing his Zirnium.

"I would like to test a vaccine on you, I can't do it on myself because of… the other guy… The vaccine isn't toxic so the worst it'll do is give you diarrhea." Bruce explained.

"Fine, but you owe me." Tony said, Bruce was incredulous, he hadn't actually expected Tony to accept right away.

"Oh, um, great, I have the serum in my lab downstairs." Bruce walked over to the elevator, followed by Tony. "The vaccine, if I've got the formula right, should be able to prevent quite a few of the more common diseases in southern africa."

Tony just let Bruce babble on about his cure-all vaccine, he was thinking about how boring it had been recently, there were no imminent threats to earth, no raving dictators, or alien cross-breeds. Really, Tony was kind of craving something to happen, but he knew he should be reveling in the relative peace they were experiencing now.

He blinked out of his thoughts when they arrived in Bruce's lab. The floor was swept clean and a row of deep shelves lined one wall, keeping all of the miscellaneous gadgets organized, much unlike Tony's lab. Bruce walked over to a table and made Tony sit down in a nearby chair.

"You'll want to be sitting down because you may experience some dizziness when the liquid first enters your system. I've run some simulations on the computer, but nothing is as accurate as actual testing." Tony mentally filed Bruce under the 'possible mad scientist' section in his mind. "Okay, here goes."

Bruce rubbed the skin in Tony's inner right elbow with a disinfectant wipe and put a vial of purple liquid into a syringe. He pressed the nozzle of the injector against Tony's skin and pulled the trigger, the purple liquid was immediately shot into Tony's veins. Tony clenched his teeth at the initial spike of pain, but relaxed once Bruce pulled the empty thing away.

"It may take a few minutes before the full affect should take place, then, I will inject you with a tiny amount of the pathogen, not enough to actually make you sick, but enough to tell if the vaccine is working." Bruce explained. "How do you feel now?"

"A little dizzy, but fine." Tony replied, his vision was blurring and he felt really dizzy. His arms and legs were becoming slow and numb and he was glad that he was sitting down because he was sure he would have fallen over.

"Tony?"

"What?"

"I asked you what's wrong, you're frowning." Bruce was in front of Tony now, his face masked with concern and worry.

"Just…dizzy…and numb…" Tony closed his eyes, he was suddenly feeling very tired, but his body felt like it was full of energy.

"-ony, open your eyes, Tony!" Bruce was yelling now, he felt frustrated and guilty and worried all at the same time.

"-eel so numb…too tired to open my…eyes…" Tony was breathing heavily and his head lolled from side to side. Bruce shook his shoulders, but only produced a moan from the incapacitated scientist.

"Come on, you have to open your eyes and tell me what's wrong! Tony, open your eyes!" Bruce smacked Tony, hard, leaving a bright red splotch on his cheek, and luckily, prompting the man to open his eyes.

"What was that for?" Tony could finally make a complete sentence, he glared at Bruce and felt the numbness in his arms and legs fading. "Nevermind, I think it's wearing off, I can move again."

"Really? It shouldn't have worn off so fast like that. I suppose you can go back up to your lab, I won't be administering the pathogen after that. I'd like you to call me if you feel anything weird though. Anything at all!" Bruce watched Tony stand up, he saw the man sway, but the scientist managed to stay standing. Tony nodded okay and left on the elevator.

The rest of the afternoon passed fairly quickly, Tony put away the Zirnium for another day and had been working on his iron man suit for a few hours. After the initial effects of the vaccine Bruce had given him, he had felt fine. He was just tightening some screws in the forearm piece of the Mark VIII, when a sharp pain shot through his head, he flinched and dropped the machine he was holding. He clutched at his head as another sharp stab hit him, he spun around and found no assailant though. He made a mental note to never let Bruce give him anything again. And then the pain stopped, as if it had never been there. Tony stood still for a moment, waiting for another wave of pain, but none came. He took a few deep breaths to calm his rapid pulse, and then he picked up the forearm repulser and began to work on it again.

"Hey Tony, we're going out for dinner, you want to come?" Steve stepped off the elevator and walked up behind Tony.

"Who's we?" Tony set down the machine and turned to the captain, interested only because he was suddenly very hungry.

"Me, Thor, Darcy, and Bruce if he says yes. Natasha and Clint are still out on a mission and Pepper is eating at the board meeting." Steve explained. Tony nodded and followed Steve into the elevator and down to the first floor. The rest of the crew were waiting for them in front of a limo that would drive them to whichever restaurant they chose. Tony could care less about where they ate, all he could think about was how hungry he suddenly was.

They arrived at a local hamburger and salad place, Darcy's request since it covered meat for Thor and salad for herself. Tony felt like he was about to eat the car he was so hungry, and Bruce kept giving him weird looks.

"Are you sure you haven't felt anything else weird?" Bruce asked Tony as they entered the restaurant and waited for a seat.

"Well right now for one I think I could eat a whole cow." Tony spoke through gritted teeth, his stomach was doing bellyflops.

"I see, we'll have to make sure the food gets here fast then." Bruce's advice only made Tony feel worse, he really regretted ever agreeing to one of Bruce's experiments.

When the food finally came, Tony ate more than Thor and the entire group was in slight shock. Tony didn't notice, he was too busy shoving forkful after forkful of food into his mouth. Bruce watched with a look of growing concern, he decided to take a blood sample as soon as they got back to headquarters.

The team took a good three minutes to exit the limo when it stopped in front of Stark Towers. Thor was in full on 'story telling' mode, and had to be pushed along by Darcy, which was hard since he kept trying to turn around and speak to the group as a whole. Tony was feeling woozy and had to be propped up by both Bruce and Steve, he could barely walk into the elevator.

"I love the story about your experience with a vending machine Thor, I hope next time it gives you a pop tart on the first try." Steve offered a smile to the god, who had finally finished his tale in the elevator. "I thick though, that you and Darcy ought to go watch another movie, Bruce and I are going to make sure Tony is okay."

Thor nodded and got off the elevator with Darcy, who was already broadcasting her movie choices to the entire empty room. The elevator dinged shut and Steve gave Bruce a look like 'finally, his stories were getting on my nerves' to which Bruce responded with a look of 'whatever, i'm worried about Tony'.

Bruce's lab was as impeccable as ever. That was all Tony could think about as he was led towards the seat he remembered from that morning. His head was feeling better, but his stomach felt distorted and way too full. He let out a belch as he sat down and both Bruce and Steve recoiled in disgust.

"'scuse me." Was all Tony could get out while trying not to throw up.

"Gross Tony." Steve said. "I'm out of here, Bruce, call me if you need anything."

Bruce nodded and Steve left the room. Tony closed his eyes.

"Tony, look at me. I need you to tell me what you feel. Are you still hungry?" Bruce leaned in front of Tony. Tony opened his eyes and squinted at the physicist.

"No way, I'm never eating again. I'm gonna have diarrhea for months." Tony felt sleepy all of a sudden. He tried to keep his eyes open and cooperate with Bruce because he knew how much a cure depended on information. But the lure of sleep was too much for the engineer who hadn't slept a full night in over a week, and he mumbled, trying to alert Bruce, before falling fast asleep in the chair.

Bruce sighed and let the man fall asleep. At least he wasn't hungry anymore. The physicist turned to his table of notes and began shuffling papers, he was never one for holograms and digital files.

"JARVIS, please monitor all of Tony's physical symptoms and alert me if anything changes." A ping from the AI answered Bruce and he sat down in front of his paperwork, ready to pull an all-nighter, while the engineer behind him snored softly in his slumber.

**Review please! Tell me all the things you thought were funny, wrong, wished had gone differently, liked the way they were, characters that should appear, anything!**

**And did you spot the song reference?**


	2. Sliced Buildings

**Sorry for the late update, I wanted to form the story more before I posted it officially, and now, here it is!**

**Previously on 'The Side-Effects', Bruce convinces Tony to test a cure-all drug, but when Tony starts having weird side-effects, the team begin to get worried...**

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Bruce had made very little progress on a cure, and had spent the last few hours staring into space. He didn't want to fall asleep in case Tony woke up and needed something.

Around midnight, Pepper came in, she had just returned from the board meeting that had gone on longer than expected, and she was very worried about Tony.

"Oh, Bruce is he okay? What happened?" She cupped Tony's chin with her hand and gave a frantic glance at the tired physicist behind her.

"He's fine as far as I can tell. Just sleeping now. It was all my mistake though, Pepper." Bruce tried to take the blame off of Tony, he knew how Pepper always blamed him with everything. "I gave him an experimental drug and he's been experiencing a lot of unforeseen side-effects."

"Bruce, how could you! You know how much Tony does to his body already, you're probably killing him now. Oh dear. How long has he been sleeping? Are you sure we shouldn't keep him awake? What if he goes into a coma?" Pepper was wringing her hands and working herself into a little panic attack.

"Pepper, Pepper. Calm down, he's fine, he fell asleep around eight. I have JARVIS monitoring his vitals, we'll know immediately if anything happens. You should get some sleep, the board meeting probably wore you out. I promise to get you if anything happens." Bruce stood and patted Peppers shoulder, reassuring her. She nodded and took a deep breathe. With one last glance at Tony, she walked quietly out of the room.

Bruce's shoulders sagged and he sunk back into his chair. Rubbing his temple, he decided he needed some air. There was a balcony one floor up that he liked to meditate in, and he convinced himself that Tony was fine and nothing would happen if he just went up there for a moment. Of course then his brain thought of everything that could go wrong, so he eventually decided to roll Tony up with him.

The elevator was a tight squeeze with Bruce and the unconscious man in the rolling chair. The only sound was that of soft snores coming from both of the men. Bruce had fallen asleep standing up in the elevator. When the doors dinged open, a funny sight could be seen, one man with short slightly curly hair leaning on the back wall, one hand still resting on the back of a rolling chair in front of him. In the rolling chair, slumped and now snoring quite loudly was a man with a sharp goatee and sticky-uppy hair. The doors dinged shut and all remained silent for the rest of the night.

Steve woke early for his morning run. He got dressed in his civilian workout clothes and headed to the kitchen to grab a granola bar before he left. Clint was sitting on one of the bar stools when Steve entered the room and seemed to be concentrating very hard on a drawing.

"Drawing something for Natasha?" Steve said, grabbing his granola bar and already heading to the elevator.

"Yeah, you'll see in a second." Clint didn't even look at Steve, and Steve thought he caught a look of mischief in the Hawk's eye.

"I'll be back in an hour." He turned around as the elevator arrived and nearly died of shock when the doors opened. Bruce had slumped to the floor along with Tony, and they were both a snoring tangle of limbs in the small confines of the elevator.

Steve forced his jaw shut and quickly reached into the elevator to press the 'keep doors open' button. Then he proceeded to untangle the mass of men from the floor. Bruce quickly woke up once he had been laid out on the floor in front of the elevator and immediately became ashamed when Steve told him the situation.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep! I was going up to get some air and I was worried Tony wasn't safe alone…" Bruce trailed off when he noticed that the scientist in question wasn't waking up, but continued to snore on the ground. Clint was also on the ground, curled up with silent laughter. Steve glanced at the drawing on the counter and found a very nice rendition of the elevator scene. Bruce would probably never live it down if that drawing ever made it to the copy machine.

"It's okay, nobody got hurt so we're fine. I'll go put Tony in his bed, it doesn't look very good to leave him on the floor." Steve comforted Bruce before picking up the unconscious Tony and carrying him to his room down the hall. When he had finished, he finally left for his morning run, with a promise from Bruce for updates.

Bruce was drinking a cup of decaf coffee when he heard thumps coming from Tony's room down the hall. He and Clint (who had been finishing his picture) jumped up and ran to the room. They found Tony wobbling out of bed and attempting to get to the bathroom.

"Tony, are you okay? How do you feel?" Bruce and Clint were by his side instantly and helped him support himself.

"I think I'm gonna need to-" His speech was slurred and he stopped at the end to swallow some bile that had risen to his mouth. "Bathroom."

Bruce and Clint got the message and half-carried half-dragged the scientist to the toilet, where he made some ungodly sounds and basically emptied his stomach. Bruce was spouting constant apologies, and Clint had found a camera to better document the event, much to Tony's humiliation.

When Tony was finally able to stand without falling over, they moved out to the main area and found Natasha standing at the counter, mug in hand.

"Ready to explain?" Her voice was removed of emotion, as per the usual, although Bruce thought he could detect a hint of curiosity beneath the steely gaze.

"Steve, do you mind, I'm going to get Tony down to my lab and run some tests. Thanks." Bruce led Tony into the elevator after receiving a nod from Steve. Tony was being uncharacteristically quiet at the moment, and Bruce pressed the button in the elevator at least three times before the door closed.

Tony sat down in the all-too-familiar chair near Bruce's work desk and remained quiet. Bruce began to organize his notes and prepared to ask Tony all of the questions to see what kind of antidote was in order.

"I didn't think so." Tony started to mumble, staring at a point in mid-air in front of him. "No, that's not right, work through that again JARVIS." Bruce turned from his position and stared at Tony. It appeared the scientist was having a hallucination.

"Sir, I have not received an equation to run through." The actual voice of the AI piped up at the weak command from it's master.

"JARVIS, ignore him, he's having a hallucination, he probably think's he's in the lab working on something." Bruce quieted the AI, then moved in front of Tony. "Tony, can you hear me?"

"Let's pull up another project, maybe the new Mark eighteen?" Tony made no signal that he could see or hear Bruce. Bruce tried again.

"TONY, listen to me! I need you to snap out of it." He added a shake to the man's shoulders, but no more response was made than the last time. Bruce gave up, he might as well time the length of the hallucination and let it play itself out.

Three hours later, Tony blinked and looked around him. The lab lights had dimmed and a sleeping physicist was resting with head on arms at the nearby desk. Tony's head felt clear, and although he felt awfully sore for some reason, he decided he needed something to drink. He got up and smirked at the sleeping form on the desk, Bruce owed him big time for making him miss a day of life in the lab.

Tony waved to the crowd as he passed out of the doors to the elevator, putting on his winning smile and descending the red-carpeted stairs to the waiting limo. He was about to step into the limo when his Iron Man suit descended from the sky and opened for him to get in. He flew up to hover in the sky and look down at his adoring fans. The air was knocked out of him as a rocket slammed into his chest and exploded, coating his body and the suit in boiling hot metal. He let out a bloodcurdling scream as pure agony raced over his burning skin.

"TONY, Tony, you're having a nightmare, snap out of it!" Steve was shaking him by the shoulders and Tony's eyes shot open in panic. He sat straight up and blinked, finally focusing on reality. The pain had faded into a dull ache throughout his body, it had felt so real though.

"Tony, can you tell me what you just experienced?" Bruce had called Steve, Clint, and Natasha down when Tony had started calling out and writhing in his sleep.

"I just- it hurt, I was… When the-" Tony couldn't seem to concentrate, his frame seemed truly rattled and his eyes kept darting around as though something would come out to bite him at any moment.

"Just start from the beginning, do you remember coming down here yesterday after you woke up?" Bruce spoke in a soothing voice, the same voice he used to comfort the sick children he had been trying to save with the vaccine.

"Yeah, yeah I remember that. We got into the elevator, then I sat in this chair and you were going through papers, and then…then I, I was in my lab. I was just working on stuff, and JARVIS wasn't talking, and I blacked out and then I was at an event, and I was in the suit and I was-" He stopped short, suddenly remembering what had happened with too much detail in his mind. The dull ache of pain had started to swell once more, focusing it's heat on the arc reactor.

"Tony, you need to tell us everything that happened. We need to know if we should call in SHIELD on this." Steve stepped into his Captain role and played it well. He knew Tony would cooperate since the scientist never wanted SHIELD in on anything they were doing.

"Okay, I just, need a moment." Tony stood up and barged through the concern of his friends and into the bathroom at the opposite end of the lab. He shut the door and leaned on the wall for support. He looked in the mirror and was confronted with a gaunt and pale version of his own visage. He rubbed back his hair and attempted to make himself look as though nothing could phase him.

Tony had just splashed some cold water on his face when he heard a loud explosion accompanied by the sound of ripping and shredding metal coming from the opposite side of the door. He grabbed the doorknob and whipped open the door, pain forgotten for a moment. The lab was gone. Along with half of the building, cut in two and still crumpling into a twisted heap on the ground fifty stories below. Tony looked around as the wind whipped at his face, he couldn't place any of the Avengers.

"JARVIS? Are you there?" Tony spoke up, knowing that there were hidden mics in every room of the tower. No response came, and Tony cursed under his breath. A tiny ledge led away to the emergency staircase next to the elevator. Tony began to inch his way out on the ledge, leaning up against the wall so as not to lose his balance. He desperately hoped that he would be spared of the debilitating side effects he had experienced earlier.

A steel beam wooshed as it passed Tony on its speedy descent into the cloud of dust below. Tony was halfway from the bathroom door to the elevator, and next to it, the stairs. Tony paused to rest for a moment in a slightly wider section of the floor. He pulled out his phone, feeling slightly stupid that he hadn't used it earlier. The battery was low, but he decided he had time for one call.

"Hello, yes, I need to speak with Director Fury…. Yes…. This is an emergency…. Okay…." Tony clung to a piece of piping and leaned over the edge while he waited for Fury to answer. The pile of wreckage was becoming clearer as the dust settled.

"What are you calling me for, Stark?" The always-angry-at-something voice of Nick Fury filtered through the small speaker of Tony's dying phone.

"Well, it may have something to do with the fact that MY BUILDING JUST GOT CUT IN HALF!" There was silence on the other line and Tony knew Fury was making his agents report to him about the recent unnoticed catastrophe.

"What do you want me to do about it? There's no sign of any alien contact Stark, this is you and the Avenger's problem. Not SHIELD's. Now go solve it before it stops up traffic, capiche?" Fury wasn't about to come to the aid of superheroes. Tony grunted and was about to reply with a smart remark when the line went dead. He dropped the phone and watched it disappear below before he continued towards the stairs.

The door to the emergency staircase had been bent by the force of the blow it had narrowly missed. Tony grabbed onto the edge and pulled, nearly falling into the abyss when the entire door swung free. He righted himself and pushed his way into the dark stairwell. There were a few flickering lights, but it was otherwise dark. Tony grabbed the railing, mentally rewarding himself for building the Tower with a 360 degree support structure so there was no chance the building would fall over on him.

Tony's goal had been to get to the stairs, but once he was there he had to pause a moment and consider his next move. All of his Iron Man suits had been in the lab, and were resting in a pile of dust below, along with half of JARVIS's servers. It would take a few more minutes for the AI to reboot from the secure location somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Another explosion sent a cloud of dust in through the open doorway and Tony leaned back out to get a glimpse of the source. A large mass was moving about the wreckage below. A small gust of wind cleared the dust enough for Tony to recognize the hulk. The monster seemed to be moving things around and jumping on pieces of wall.

"I guess this is what happens when he doesn't have anyone to fight." Tony thought aloud. Then he wondered if Steve had survived, along with Clint and Natasha.

"Sir, I am back online and currently running damage diagnostics." JARVIS's voice came through a hidden speaker behind Tony and the scientist nearly laughed with relief.

"J, I need you to check for life signs in the pile of stuff down there." He instructed.

"There are four signs of life below. I register Bruce Banner as the Hulk is conscious. Captain Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff remain unconscious underneath the rubble. Sir, I would like to inform you that Miss Potts is on the penthouse floor, she appears to be unharmed."

"Got it. Are there any functional suits for me?" Tony was still staring at the Hulk, tiny from his vantage point. Still searching for the others.

"Sir, there is one suit that remains functional. Shall I send it up to you?" JARVIS was becoming fuzzy as the speaker died.

"Yes, do it now." Tony stepped back onto the ledge, holding on with one hand and leaning forward to position himself correctly for the suit. Another small burst of dust came with the familiar sound of the repulsers flying the unmanned suit to the man perched on the wall. The metal casing enveloped Tony and as the mask closed on his face, the lights came on and he was facing the familiar screen of diagnostics and charts.

Tony used the thrusters and propelled himself up to the penthouse level. His first priority was to find Pepper and make sure she was safe.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! What's going to happen? **

**I love suggestions for what you want to happen in the next chapter, please inspire me!**


	3. The Frozen SHIELD

**Well, well, well, what do we have but another chapter! I hope you will like this chapter, I got quite a few suggestions and I think I will try to incorporate the ideas from some of them...**

**Previously on "The Side-Effects" : Tony finds out that Stark Tower has been cut in half, the other avengers have been crushed, and where is Pepper? On top of that, he continues to suffer these completely random side-effects from Bruce's experimental drug...now, read on!**

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Tony made it up to the penthouse and entered with ease, seeing as half the building wasn't there anymore. He found Pepper curled behind the bar, shaking. He walked over and opened his visor, his face creased in worry that she might be hurt.

"Pepper, are you alright?" Tony bent down in his armor and gently held Peppers hand, making sure she knew he was there. Her face was streaked with tears and her hand trembled in the armor's grasp.

"Wha- yeah. I- I don't know, Tony, I was just standing and- if just- one step forward and I-" Pepper shook and dissolved into tears again as Tony helped her up and hugged her as tight as he could with his suit on. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I was in the lab. Bruce, Steve, Clint, and Natasha are all down there. Don't worry, they're alive." Tony added when he saw the look of panic on Peppers pale face. She was still quite shaken, and Tony felt she had the right since she had been standing millimeters from death. "It's over now, you made it, we all made it. Well, except for half the building… Anyways, I'm going to fly you to the helicopter deck and call in SHIELD to pick you up until we know who did this."

Tony held onto Pepper and shot up to the helicopter deck, which had been lucky enough to survive the attack. He signaled SHIELD and Fury (reluctantly) agreed to send one jet to pick up Pepper. With one last hug, he made sure Pepper would be okay. She gave him a kiss on his cheek to say good luck.

With Pepper safely out of the way, Tony turned and shot down to ground level to help the Hulk locate the rest of the team. He found Thor sorting through the debris at the bottom too.

"Find anyone yet?" Tony switched his visor to heat sensitive and quickly located the three heat signatures pulsing under the rubble. "I've got three life signs showing up, check over there, and there." Tony pointed to two of the blobs and then headed to the third himself.

Hulk and Thor both immediately began tearing up the debris, which was piled two stories high and currently blocking traffic on the streets. Tony paid no attention to that, only focusing on clearing the pile and saving his friends. He used his wrist laser to cut through a steel beam, revealing Steve's arm underneath.

"Steve, can you hear me? Wave your arm if you can." Tony yelled. He watched in silence as the fingers twitched on Steve's hand. Tony quickly removed the rest of the debris and pulled Steve from the wreckage.

"Glad to have you back Cap." Tony stood back once Steve could stand on his own. The concrete slab they stood on shifted for a moment and they both nearly lost their balance.

"Glad to be back. Do we have orders?" Steve replied, dusting his shoulders off and regaining his balance before looking around for his shield. He found it sticking out of a section of ceiling a few meters away.

"No, SHIELD is taking no part in this." Tony's voice came out harsher than he intended and Steve looked up from where he was pulling free his shield. "Did you get a glimpse of what did this?"

"No, when you stepped into the bathroom all I saw was a blur and then the entire building was collapsing on us. Like some giant spatula just flattened half the building." Steve and Tony began walking towards Thor and Hulk who had retrieved Natasha and Clint from the rubble.

"I believe they will survive, although the archer has sustained a broken ankle, so it appears." Thor reported.

Clint was laying on his back, breathing shallowly and still unconscious. His ankle was twisted in a weird position and it was turning an ugly shade of purple. Natasha sat up nearby and rubbed her neck, she didn't seem to be hurt. Tony suspected her extreme flexibility to be the culprit. The Hulk punched a wall and then slowly turned back into Bruce Banner, who immediately tugged his extremely oversized pants up to cover himself.

"Okay, everybody's here, did anyone see what caused this?" Tony took charge, opening his mask to get a better look around.

"No, I saw nothing."

"Nada, I think I got knocked out before the Hu- the other guy came out."

"I thought I heard something, like a buzz or a whine, right before the building collapsed. Stark, how did you get down here?"

"I was right on the edge of the slice, if I had been standing right outside the bathroom, I'd be cut in two right now." Tony was becoming very confused. Who had done this? Who had the power to do this? Why wasn't SHIELD even interested in this? And where was the person responsible?

Tony shook his head and gathered his thoughts, first order of business, find out what caused the collapse. Since it wasn't the structure (too irregular and the building was super re-enforced anyway), it had to have been an outside blow. If that, then what and where was the cause?

Tony looked up into the sky and was blinded by the sun. He blinked and his mask shut and turned on 'sunglasses protocol' allowing him to see into the bright mid-day sky. He had to concentrate hard and use his visor to zoom in on what he was seeing before he would confirm it with himself. It was a squadron of hovering single-person vehicles that Tony had never seen before. Riding each vehicle was a semi-alien looking man. Tony couldn't tell any details since they were hovering so high in the sky.

"Guys, can you see that?" Tony pointed up at the squadron.

Thor immediately spun his hammer and launched himself into the sky after the hovering beasts. The rest of the team watched as, when Thor approached, the aliens scattered and disappeared from view. He landed a moment later in a cloud of dust.

"I did not get a very good glimpse of the beings before they scattered. Although I can assure you I have never seen the likes of them before." Thor spoke as the dust settled. The Avengers were now standing on top of the massive pile of Stark Tower pieces. Clint was still unconscious, and being tended to by Natasha. Tony glanced up once more and saw the quinjet leaving with Pepper safely inside.

"I say we get up to the helicarrier and tell SHIELD about this. What do you think Captain?" Bruce watched the quinjet leave and turned to Steve.

"I think that's probably a good idea. Stark?" Steve looked at Tony, waiting for the complaining retort, Tony never liked informing SHIELD about anything. None came though and, Thor tapped on Tony's helmet, wanting a response.

"Huh, Oh, yeah sure, let's get to the Helicarrier, I sent a quinjet there with Pepper on board. I need to see if she's okay." The worry seemed to dissipate in the team's eyes. "Just one thing, how are we going to get there?"

This threw a loop in their plan. Clint was slowly gaining consciousness, but would be unable to move for a while. Natasha, Steve, and Bruce couldn't fly anywhere. And Tony and Thor couldn't carry everyone. There was an awkward silence as they each tried to come up with a solution.

"Why don't we make a stretcher and Thor and Tony can carry it on strings?" Clint mumbled, finally able to form a coherent thought. Natasha had set his ankle and fancied a splint out of some metal beams.

"Well, there certainly is enough material here. Stark, think you could whip one together and carry four people?" Steve asked. Tony nodded yes and, with help from the others, managed to stick together a make-shift platform. He attached some metal coils to the corners and handed two to Thor.

"All aboard the Stark Express. Next stop, the Helicarrier." He mocked, holding the other two wires and waiting for Natasha to help Clint lay down on the board. When everyone had settled on, Tony nodded to Thor and they slowly rose away from the destruction and out towards the Atlantic.

They were making slow progress. Thor seemed to have infinite strength, but Tony was wearing down. His suit was at 30 percent power, and his arms were cramping from holding the wires so tightly. They had been this way for nearly an hour, and they were about one mile off shore, and two miles from the Helicarrier. They were also about five-thousand feet in the air.

Tony concentrated, shifting his hands to get a better grip on the wire holding his friends. His vision went blurry and he tensed, anticipating another sort of side-effect. He was right, his vision drifted and then faded altogether, leaving Tony flying blind.

"JARVIS, keep me on course." Tony instructed, but he could barely hear his own voice, much less JARVIS's response.

Tony was losing feeling in his feet. He felt a tingle, and then nothing as the loss of feeling slowly spread up from his toes. He panicked, he knew that if he lost feeling in his arms and hands, he would drop his friends into the ocean below. He turned his head, and with all the strength he could muster, shouted to Thor to take the load. Then he blacked out.

Natasha felt something was wrong the second she felt a waver in the otherwise smooth flight of the platform. She had looked up from where she was tending to Clint, only to see the arc reactor flicker. It was barely anything, so she wrote it off as such, and looked away. But something deep insider her said that things were going to get much, much worse, before they got better. Which is why, when Tony Stark let go of the wire, she was prepared. She had tied Clint to one edge of the platform, and was in position to grab Steve and Bruce before they could fall off. Thor, miraculously, managed to hold the weight and prevent them from all plummeting like Tony was.

Natasha looked down from her perch on the edge of the vertical platform and spotted the tumbling metal suit far below. It didn't seem to be slowing down. She thought this scene was all too familiar for her liking.

"Woah, he's not stopping. What happened? He was fine a second ago!" Clint had jerked awake when Tony let go.

"He must have blacked out or something." Bruce was surprisingly calm, he couldn't risk another Hulk out.

"We've got to get him out of the suit, he'll drown if he isn't awake." Steve said, and, without a second thought, dropped off the platform and shot after Tony.

Steve was gaining on the plummeting body below, but he wasn't going to make it in time to catch Tony before he hit the water. He saw the splash and readied himself for impact a moment later. Holding his shield out to split the water, Steve dove in after the rapidly sinking metal man.

The water was dark and cold, and hundreds of bubbles floated up around Steve, leading him towards his fallen comrade. He made it, wrapping his arms around Tony's torso, kicking hard and slowly pulling the heavy man towards the surface. His lungs were burning, and his eyes stung with the salt water. He felt his heart beat faster as it struggled from lack of oxygen. Then he broke the surface and took a huge breath. He couldn't remain above the water though, Tony's weight dragged him back under.

Steve writhed around and began ripping away pieces of the suit in an attempt to lighten the load. As he tore off the gauntlets he realized the arc reactor was flashing violently. Steve hauled and managed to get Tony's head above the water, his helmet was still on, but the lights were out.

"JARVIS? JARVIS! Can you hear me?" Steve spluttered, his mouth filling with salty water.

"It appears I have taken on a large amount of damage. Mr. Stark is unconscious, I cannot diagnose at this time." The speakers were fuzzy from water damage, but Steve's heart leapt with hope.

"JARVIS, I need you to let Tony out of the suit! I can't hold him up any-" Steve was once more submerged in the cold water. He fought desperately to regain the surface, but the waves sucked him under. He kept a firm hold on Tony, still inside what was left of his suit. The cold murk of the water sucked the warmth and strength from Steve's body.

Just as Steve felt his arms going limp the metal jerked underneath his weakening grip and the suit released Tony. Unfolding from the man's limp body with a burst of hydraulic bubbles and drifting off into the depths. Steve found enough strength to once more kick and paddle, holding the limp, yet lighter, body of Tony Stark. He surged to the surface, pulling Tony up with him. He unslung his shield and used it as a signal and watched as Thor lowered the platform into the water, where it surprisingly floated.

Steve hefted Tony's limp form onto the platform, rolling him onto his back, before dragging himself on after.

"Does anybody know CPR?" Steve said, he remembered taking the safety class when he was in the army, but wanted someone who had been more recently versed to take over, plus, he barely had enough strength to hold himself on the raft.

"I do, move back." Bruce took charge in a slightly uncharacteristic way, moving quickly to begin compressions on Tony's chest. The arc reactor was now only flickering a dull blue color. "Captain, I need you to radio for SHIELD to help us. Now."

"Got it." Steve pressed his hand to his ear to activate the radio, but realized he had lost it in the water. "Natasha, I don't have my radio, can you call SHIELD?"

"Yes." Natasha moved to the far side of the small raft and began talking quietly on her radio.

Bruce was pounding at Tony's chest, after every five pounds he would blow a breath into the unconscious man's mouth, then he would take a pulse. The process was repeated almost twelve times before Tony finally took a huge breath and vomited sea water all over the place. He coughed and spluttered, unable to gain control of his body, he was so weak. Bruce, panting, nearly fainted with relief.

"Wha- What happened?" Tony's voice was horse and his lips had turned a sickly shade of blue. His breathing was husky and he coughed after every breath.

"You just went down, nearly dropped us too! You're lucky Nat has good reflexes." Clint was still laying down, but his strength was coming back.

"It was another side-effect. Black outs. I should have expected it." Bruce was shaking and he was rubbing his knuckles furiously.

"Woah, calm down Bruce. I'm fine, we're going to SHIELD right?" Tony sat up, the color coming back into his face. His arc reactor was shining a bright blue once more. "Wait, what happened to my suit?" He said with sudden realization.

"Oh, yeah…about that…I kind of... had to let it sink…" Steve rubbed the back of his neck and wouldn't make eye contact with Tony.

"You WHAT?! Do you know how much that suit costs! Damaging it in battle is one thing, cause I can fix that, but dropping in the ocean! I just-" Tony stopped, out of breath and on the verge of passing out. He took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm not talking to you anymore."

"Could you act like more of a child!? I just saved your life you know, a little thanks wouldn't go unnoticed!" Steve exploded, he was tired, and wet, and a breeze had just picked up, sending him into shivers.

"Whatever." Tony didn't have long to sulk before Natasha interrupted them.

"Guys, SHIELD isn't responding." Her voice was calm.

"I believe I can pull the raft to the Helicarrier without much problem." Thor boomed, hovering over the raft.

"Good idea, I wonder what's going on with them. First they don't come to help at the tower, and now they aren't answering their radio…odd." Steve mused, pushing aside his anger at Tony for a moment. "What do you think Stark."

"I think, Fury is up to something." Bruce noticed that Tony's breathing had been steadily getting worse since he had woken. The scientist was almost constantly coughing.

"Tony, are you sure you're alright. I think you may have some sort of respiratory problem."

"I'm *cough* fine. *cough* Just get to the Helicarrier *cough*." Tony was curled into a tight ball, his eyes scrunched shut with each cough. Natasha rested her hand on his shoulder. Thor began to swing his hammer and propel them towards the Helicarrier like a jet-ski.

When they were almost underneath the huge flying headquarters, Thor grabbed the coils of wire and heaved, flying the entire group up and landing on the deck of the craft. As usual, there was a bustle of activity going on, and they were soon greeted by some agents. Two medical teams came out pushing stretchers to carry Clint and Tony to the infirmary. Tony complained the whole time about being carried around when he was fine, but Bruce knew that if they had made Tony walk, he wouldn't have made it.

The infirmary was quiet, Clint was in surgery to fix his ankle, and Tony had been given a sedative for falling off the gurney. Twice.

Fury had yet to appear, and the Avengers were left sitting in the hallway, half asleep, for two hours. A loud crash made Natasha and Steve shoot to their feet, Bruce was slower to get up, but he soon followed the others to the source of the noise. It happened to be Tony's room, and they entered to find a nurse trying to help the half-drugged scientist back into the hospital bed.

"Third time, huh." Steve muttered. Natasha nodded, she knew Clint would have been in hysterics, but he was still asleep from the surgery.

When Tony was finally situated back on the bed, he shooed the nurse and turned to his teammates.

"How long have I been out?"

"Just a few hours, they sedated you, remember?" Bruce answered.

"I remember. I also remember someone whining about not getting a thank you, so this is it: Thanks." He glowered at Steve, who shrugged and accepted what thanks he would get. He knew it was childish for him to ask for a thank you, but some sort of resentment kept him from apologizing.

"So what does Fury think?" Tony continued.

"We haven't actually seen him this entire time." Bruce admitted.

"That's certainly odd. Here, let's go look, Nat, help me up." Tony swung his legs off the side of the bed and clutched the bedside table to help himself stand. Natasha came over and let him cling to her shoulder while he fought the surge of drug and side-effect nausea that threatened to envelope him again. "Okay, okay, I'm good, let's get out of this hospital, I hate hospitals."

The four teammates (Thor had drawn the short straw and was keeping watch for the aliens on deck outside) made their way out of the infirmary and decided to first check the bridge. The hallways were empty as they got closer to the bridge. Tony was feeling better and had stopped relying on Natasha and the walls for support.

The bridge was very quiet when the Avengers walked in. Fury stood at his usual post, surrounded by lower agents. While there was a bustle of activity, the room seemed to soak up the sound, leaving an eerie silence in it's wake. Fury didn't even turn around when Tony greeted him.

"Fury, what's the deal with all this apathy?" Tony walked right up behind the Director. "Hey, are you even paying attention-"

Tony had moved in front of the Director and froze in shock.

"Tony, what is it?" Steve walked up to see what Tony was seeing.

"He's just, frozen. Like a shop dummy." Tony's voice was smaller than usual.

The rest of the team ran up to Fury, and they too were shocked speechless. As they stood there in silence, something else occurred to them. The rest of the room had slowed to a stop, all of the other agents that had been moving only moments ago, were frozen as well. Their eyes glassy and skin like plastic.

"Quick, we need to get to the infirmary and grab Clint, then we need to get off this hunk of metal. I think it's spreading." Natasha was the first to come to terms with the slightly disturbing sight.

They ran off the bridge, leaving the statues behind. Tony brought up the rear, intending to split from the group and grab his spare suit from the weapons room. He voiced his thoughts out loud and a chorus of agreement and "meet on the deck" came back. He turned down the hallway for the weapons room, quickly unlocked the door with his passcode, and walked confidently up to his suit. The cool metal enveloped him and the bright icons quickly assimilated on his dash. JARVIS gave his usual greeting, and apologized for allowing the suit to sink.

"It's okay J, you had no control over it since I was in manual mode anyway. I'm fine now, but in the future, if I black out, set automatic protocol to go." JARVIS pinged in response, and Tony fired up the repulsers. He pulled the large red lever to open the exit ramp, and flew out, curving around to land on the deck, right next to Thor. A few minutes later, Natasha, Bruce, and Steve came running out, tugging the stretcher that Clint was on with them. They found a quinjet on deck that was open, plastic soldiers sat inside, waiting for takeoff. Steve un-strapped the soldiers from their seats and gently set them on the deck, muttering sorry's when he accidentally bumped them. Tony and Thor decided to ride with the team in the jet, and as Natasha was turning onto the runway, they realized they had no idea where they were going.

"I say we go back to the Tower and see if we can find any clues in the wreckage. Maybe some security tapes survived." Steve suggested.

"No, I had JARVIS scan all of the security footage from the attack, there isn't anything there." Tony spoke, his visor open to see his team better.

"Maybe we should go to the lab and see if we can scan the crew members. Find out what's wrong with them and how it's spreading." Bruce spoke up.

The team agreed this was best, and Natasha elected to fly the quinjet around the helicarrier and search for some sort of entry point. Clint woke up as they were getting off the quinjet and decided he wanted to go with her. They strapped him down and stacked a box under his foot to keep his cast-bound ankle elevated. The quinjet took off without a hitch, and the rest of the team started walking back to the lab. Tony had no idea what could have turned so many people into plastic in such a short time, and with such stealth. He was contemplating this thought as they marched down the halls to the lab, when Steve nearly jumped.

"Guys! If everyone on the ship's plastic, who's steering?" This gave them all a pause, and Thor became very worried.

"I shall use Mjolnir to push the metal beast in the right direction if it is required." He hefted the large hammer to show his seriousness.

"No meatswing, it's fine. Steve, the ship should be on Autopilot. It'll just hover in one position until it's turned off. Remember I designed the software." Tony wasn't worried about that, he was agitated that he wasn't in the lab yet; his curiosity was nearly overwhelming.

They finally made it to the lab and Tony immediately had three computer screens actively scanning each crew member and determining chemical compositions. He had another screen up that was scrolling through security images, one window showed a black and white view of the bridge from one hour ago. Tony watched as the bustle slowed and finally came to a stop as the people turned to plastic.

"Bruce, get a load of this." Tony rewound the video and played it again. It was only two minutes long, but Bruce was dumbfounded when it ended.

A beep sounded from the other computers as the software scanning the crew finished it's job and popped the results up. Tony turned away from the paused video and began scrolling through the results. His frown grew more and more pronounced as he scrolled. Bruce hovered behind his back and read what he was reading. Steve couldn't stand it anymore and broke the silence.

"What? What is it?" He stood up, and the two scientists looked through the glass screen at him, concern and worry evident in their eyes.

"Um, well, you tell 'em big guy." Tony kept his eyes on the results, as if they could change any second.

"You're not going to like it." He paused.

"Well we have to deal with it, so spit it out." Steve said.

"Okay, well the good thing is, they aren't actually plastic. The bad thing is, they're still conscious. There isn't anything in their chemical make up that is out of the ordinary. But we've registered active brain waves going on in all of the crew members. It's like they've just been frozen in time." Bruce rubbed his knuckles.

"Do you think the aliens we spotted above the tower have anything to do with this?" Thor asked, having listened intently to their conversation.

"We can't say for sure. It's probably some new chemical compound that our tracers can't detect. Steve, do you think you could get me a DNA sample from one of the agents?" Tony finally looked away from the readouts.

"DNA, got it." Steve dashed out. There was a few moments of silence as Tony closed the charts and began programming the DNA scanner. Steve returned with a few strands of brown hair.

"Thanks." Tony took the sample and stuck it on a clean slide, pushing it into the scanner and pressing start. "It'll be about half an hour before this baby is ready to study." Tony reported, his fingers flying over the keyboard as the machine started to hum.

"We should make sure that the attacker doesn't get back in the Helicarrier. Thor, go report to Natasha and see if she's seen anything. Bruce, can you help me? I have an idea." Steve took charge and they ran out of the room, leaving Tony alone with the computers.

Tony finished the coding in a few minutes, but still had to wait for the DNA sample to finish. He sat down in a nearby chair and spun around a bit. Contemplating the crazy situation he was in. First, he had accepted being tested on by a mad scientist and began to get intense and unpredictable side-effects. Then Stark Tower got sliced and crushed in half. Now all of SHIELD was down because they had been frozen in time. Tony jerked with a sudden realization, he hadn't seen Pepper amongst the agents and crew members. She should have been aboard.

"JARVIS, scan all life signs on the ship, locate Pepper Potts." Tony instructed the AI.

"Life scan complete. Miss Potts is not aboard the Helicarrier." JARVIS's response filled Tony with relief, and then dread. What if she had been captured by the aliens? What if they tortured her? What if- Tony collapsed on the floor, writhing as agony ripped through his body. He squirmed to find a position that would alleviate the pain, but with no success. His only thoughts were of how much he was going to kill Bruce when this new side-effect ended.

Only it didn't end. The pain became a constant. Tony had quickly tired of moving around and was laying on the ground, flat on his back, breathing heavily and squeezing his eyes closed. The pain itched and burned at his skin, but did not penetrate any deeper than that. Tony felt as though every movement sent a wave of fire-ants breathing fire down his skin.

"JARVIS…call…Bruce…help…" Tony's voice was hoarse from his heavy breathing.

"Yes sir." JARVIS pinged back, and a few minutes later (which felt like an eternity to Tony) Bruce was rushing into the lab, followed by Steve.

"Tony, another side-effect? What are you feeling?" Bruce knelt down next to Tony's face, his hands ghosting over Tony's body, waiting instructions.

"Bruce…it…it hurts so much…" Tony struggled to speak, wincing when each movement shot out more pain.

"Where does it hurt? Try to take deep breathes and calm down." Bruce gave instructions, hating himself for being so helpless and for also being the cause of his friend's pain.

"Just, everywhere…when I move…" Tony shut his eyes, feeling the energy slowly draining from his body. The cool floor was not helping as he felt his body overheating.

"It's going to be okay. Steve, grab me one of the bottles with a blue label on it in that cabinet." Bruce pointed to a cabinet that had color-coded drugs inside. Steve nodded and grabbed the specified bottle. Bruce grabbed a syringe and filled it with the clear liquid. Then he slowly stuck it in Tony's arm, pressing the liquid into his vein. "That should stop the pain."

Tony's body slowly relaxed as a numb feeling filtered through his bloodstream. He relaxed his body and fought off sleep as his eyelids drooped. Bruce let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and put the syringe away. He was about to help Tony up, when Thor burst into the room.

"I bring terrible news!"

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**And end scene... I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I am really just making up side-effects as I go on as an excuse for more Tony!Whump (which if you haven't noticed, is my favorite) **

**Please review with feedback, criticism, anything! **


	4. The Biggest Plot Twist Ever

**Sorry for the late update guys! Summer started for me and I was busy not updating... anyways, here's the chapter! **

**WARNING: huge twist at the end... inspired by one of my reviewers (you know who you are)**

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"The lady Widow and the Hawk man have crashed on the deck, when I retrieved them, they were turned solid like the rest of the agents of SHIELD!" Thor was clearly distraught, he waved his hammer in his hand as he gestured outside. Bruce quickly pulled Tony up and helped him hobble outside after Steve and Thor. They were greeted with a smoking pile of quinjet on the deck as they opened the door outside. The wind whipped at everyones face as they moved closer to the wreck. Thor showed them where he had placed the two solid bodies of Clint and Natasha. They were both in a look of panic.

Clint had his arms out and Natasha looked like she was frantically pressing a button while flying an invisible plane. Or quinjet.

"It must be airborne." Tony said, able to stand on his own, although he could barely feel anything through the numbing effect of the pain reliever.

"We need to find out what it is quick, we may have already ingested it." Bruce turned to Tony, they shared a nod, and both turned to run back to the lab.

The DNA sample was ready and the computer screens flashed with new information. For the sake of time Tony ordered JARVIS to remove all normal sequences and isolate the mutations. The list quickly shortened to only one line of genomes.

"That's it. It's a chemical virus that attacks your DNA." Tony ran his hands through his hair with the shock of realization. "It's probably already in our systems. Thor won't be affected, and you probably won't either Bruce."

"But that means-"

"Yeah, me and Cap will probably be down for the count any second now. You need to find a way to isolate the genome and create an antivirus. Let me just-" Tony was cut off by an overwhelming formation of bright colors. The room had turned into a dance floor with at least three laser lights and twelve disco balls. He turned around and the colors swirled with him, he tried to blink them away, but they only got brighter.

"Tony, is it another side-effect?" Bruce was there, but his face was a psychedelic twist of rainbows and Tony couldn't focus on anything. "I think he's having a hallucination, Steve, we need to get to another quinjet and- Oh god, Steve!"

Tony faintly realized that Steve must have frozen too. It seemed cruel to him, that the Captain be frozen more than once, but he was too busy spinning in his haze of color to give it much thought. Then, as if the brightness wasn't enough, Tony began to hear sounds at a hugely amplified level. His face contorted and he felt himself clinging to his ears as the noise threatened to explode in his head.

"SHH, shut up! Shut up! Be quiet, it's too loud!" Tony felt himself yelling, but each word sounded like an explosion and he felt himself collapse on the floor. Then there were arms around him and he blacked out.

Tony woke up to white light. His first thought was 'hospital' but as he came to his senses and looked around, he realized he was in the lab of the Helicarrier. He sat up and rubbed his head, memories finally flashing their way through. He sighed in relief that the lights and sounds were no longer amplified, although he still had a slight headache. As he stood up, he also realized that he could still move, which was odd, since he had probably been unconscious for at least a few minutes. The lab was empty, and the DNA samples had been cleared and the computers turned off. Tony wandered into the hall and began to head to the bridge. He had no way of contacting his teammates without his cellphone or ear radio, and after a few yells, he found that JARVIS had shut down as well. As he neared the bridge, the sound of pattering greeted him and he briefly wondered what was causing it. The bridge was the same as last time, all the agents remained frozen, but there were more of them than before. Tony thought that's what Steve and Bruce had been working on, gathering all of the agents and crew members together so they couldn't be isolated and killed. Tony turned towards the conference table and had to do a double take when he saw Steve, Natasha, and Clint sitting there. They were frozen as well, and Tony again wondered why he wasn't the same.

Tony heard the pattering noise growing closer and suddenly realized it was the sound of bullets pelting the outer hull of the Helicarrier. He ran to the weapons room and put on his spare Iron Man suit, ready to join the fray. The bay doors opened and he shot out, curving to hover over the ship and survey what exactly was going on. His sensors and targeting system was down, along with JARVIS, and Tony was worried a virus had infested his technology. As he circled the Helicarrier, he finally got to the source of the gunfire. Ten hovering vehicles carrying the humanoid aliens were busy shooting at Thor and the Hulk on the flight deck.

Tony swooped in and blasted two of the ships down using his repulsers. They turned their attention away from the Hulk and Thor and began shooting at Tony. Tony shot up and looped around them, firing his repulsers and avoiding the rapid spray of bullets. He caught the Hulk jumping on one of them out of the corner of his eye and Thor was busy shooting lightning everywhere. Tony dodged a - spear?- that was thrown at him and held his hand up to kill the attacker, when he felt a sharp pain from behind. The spear had turned around like a heat-seeking missile and embedded itself in Tony's side. It had stuck in the armor and was piercing Tony's lower abdomen. Tony lost his balance and fell, trying to slow himself with his reactors, but still landing hard on the deck of the Helicarrier. He felt woozy and slightly disoriented as his blood formed a small puddle around him. He reached over and pulled the spear out of his armor, releasing a torrent of agony and a spurt of blood. The spear clattered to the ground and Tony, still standing, leaned forward, clutching at his stomach with his metal hands. He heard two thumps nearby and realized the fight must have ended.

"Man of Iron, have you sustained an injury?" Thor approached from behind. Tony couldn't answer, his teeth were gritted and he was focusing on staying awake, he didn't want to spend any more time unconscious.

"Tony, oh no. Thor, we need to get him to the medical bay." Bruce was there, Tony felt comfort and doubt at the same time. He wanted so badly to trust Bruce, but his brain warned him of how many times Bruce had messed up in the past two days. "Tony, don't get out of the suit, it's probably keeping pressure on your wound, Thor will carry you."

Tony felt himself tipped backwards as Thor gently picked him up and carried him bridal style into the ship. He was seeing black spots on the edge of his vision, and he felt so lightheaded he could pass out at any moment. Even the slight motion of Thor's body was causing more pain to register in his brain, and he grunted with each footstep. Tony felt like an eternity had passed by the time they made it to the infirmary, Bruce had remained silent the entire time, although Tony wasn't sure he would have been able to have a conversation with the amount of blood he had lost.

"Here, set him on this bed. Now help me get the suit off." Bruce instructed Thor. They began to remove the suit, starting with his legs and arms and finishing with the torso. A puddle of blood had formed beneath the hospital bed by the time they were done. Tony had passed out, his face was deathly pale, and the only sign of life was the almost imperceptible movement of his chest with each breath.

"Will he be alright?" Thor asked.

"I hope so. He's lost a lot of blood, so we need to do a transfusion. Grab me some type O blood from the refrigerator over there." Bruce began to ready an IV in Tony's arm and pressed some clean towels to the gash in his side. Thor handed Bruce the bag of cold blood and Bruce hung it on the IV drip, allowing a steady transfusion of blood to enter Tony's system. Now all he had to do was stop the bleeding.

Bruce moved to take off the towels and clean the wound when Tony arched his back and screamed. The bloodcurdling sound echoed in the grey room, Tony's raw wailing sent shivers up Thor's spine. He continued to scream in his unconscious state for nearly thirty seconds, but finally his breath or strength ran out. Bruce made Thor hold Tony down and began to frantically clean the wound. He poured some liquid peroxide over it, wiping the blood away to reveal the nasty stab wound. The spear had penetrated Tony's side very close to his liver, and would need a lot of stitches. Bruce hurriedly began to suture the wound, thanking God that it hadn't punctured Tony's liver or other internal organs.

When the wound was closed and bandaged, Bruce finally sat down and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. He realized he was covered in blood and peroxide. Thor stood guard quietly at the door. Tony slept on the hospital bed, his face slowly gaining color as the blood continued to replenish in his system. His Iron Man suit lay scattered in broken pieces around the floor.

Nearly two hours after Tony had been stabbed in the side, he woke up. His head felt heavy and he didn't feel well enough to move. He tried to take a deep breath, but stopped halfway through when a flare of pain came from his side. He remembered the fight, and getting stabbed.

"Tony, are you awake?" Bruce was hovering over him, Tony opened his eyes and struggled to focus on the pale physicist.

"Yeah." He managed to croak.

"Good. I was worried you were going to go catatonic. Your wound is healing, I patched it up, there's no major damage. But it will hurt for awhile." Bruce helped Tony move into a sitting position. Tony's head pounded with the change in elevation, but the pain soon subsided.

"Why am I not frozen like the others?" Tony flinched when he remembered seeing half his team frozen solid. He understood why Bruce and Thor weren't frozen, but him, he had no idea.

"Well, that's what we were wondering as well."

"But…" Tony knew Bruce would have at least seven theories as to why he wasn't affected.

"But, I think it might have something to do with the antidote I gave you. I did a biological scan on you while you were asleep, and a small amount of the serum I created has attached itself to your arc reactor. That's why the side-effects are still happening." Bruce watched as Tony's face darkened with the news.

"You know I'm going to kill you for this. Just as soon as I get better, you're dead." Tony spoke in a lighthearted voice, but Bruce knew he wasn't completely joking.

"Okay, but right now we have a bigger problem. The alien things have been attacking the ship for a while now. We fought off the last wave, but it's only a matter of time before they return."

"What do you suggest?" Thor had walked into the conversation and had been listening intently for the past few moments.

"I've got nothing." Tony said.

"I only wish that the Tower hadn't been destroyed, we need a home base." Bruce said. "And the Helicarrier is too much of a target, we can't get anything done." Bruce added.

Bruce turned on one of the nearby computer monitors, similar to the ones in the lab. He was about to check the security feeds from the outside of the Helicarrier, when the entire screen fuzzed and was replaced by a live feed.

"Greetings Avengers. Or really, what is left of you. My hyper-tract gas has done it's job well." A dark silhouetted head was shown on screen now and the three remaining Avengers stared on in silence. "I am the leader of the 'aliens' that you have been fighting. I'm calling to tell you that you have nowhere to run, I will soon begin a lovely game for you to participate in. The pieces have already been set up, all you need to do is find the location."

The screen cut off with a beep.

"Wait-" Tony was too late.

"What do you think he meant by game?" Bruce contemplated, replaying the sentence in his head.

"I do not know, but I fear it is not going to be parcheesi." Thor had had enough patience to learn one board game during the team's time in Stark Tower. It was parcheesi. And he played it nearly nonstop with whoever would participate. Tony had even caught him playing by himself once (and had received quite the pounding when he blabbed to the rest of the team).

"Thor, I don't think an evil mastermind would go through all this trouble to make us play parcheesi." Tony said, mentally face palming and making a note to himself to teach Thor more board games when this was over. "He probably meant like chess or something."

"I agree, chess does seem more likely." Bruce was distracted by his thoughts though. He was mulling over the 'find the location' part of the villains monologue.

"- didn't even say his name. Now that's what I call bad marketing there."

"Tony stop talking." Bruce held up a hand and Tony cut short. "I think I know what he means by location. Remember how the tower was cut in half? Well, why didn't they just smash the whole thing?"

Tony's eyes widened in understanding. Thor looked confused.

"I do not understand what conclusion you could have drawn from such little information."

"Stark Tower is where he want's us to go, and the Helicarrier is going to be the playing board, it'll look like a giant, misshapen, upside-down pawn." Tony burst out, leaning forward he winced when his injury reasserted it's presence. "I need to get to the Bridge, I can reprogram the flight pattern and get us there."

Bruce and Thor grabbed a wheelchair near the door and helped Tony into it. They pushed him down the hall and were soon at the bridge. As they entered the bridge, Bruce was the first to notice something was off.

"Hey guys, do feel like, something happened?"

"You mean other than the entire population of the Helicarrier and three of the Avengers being frozen solid? Uh, no." Tony was typing on the main screen and there was currently a big red 'ACCESS DENIED' sign popping up everywhere.

"No seriously, I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is definitely different." Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose in thought.

"Were not these pilots in a sitting position upon our departure?" Thor pointed to two pilots, both standing straight up at military ease.

"That's it! Of course, Thor, how could I not have noticed. Everyone is standing up in the same position." Bruce prodded Tony to look around, and he was just as shocked, although he pushed it down and continued focusing on getting access to the Helicarrier.

"That's great and all, but what I'm really troubled with is why I'm having so much trouble hacking a system I designed." Tony pressed the keys harder and a loud beeping noise began to emit from the hidden speakers. "Great, I've tripped the security systems, someone has upgraded these servers. That, or I'm just having a really bad day."

Footsteps sounder from down the halls leading to the bridge and Thor and Bruce (now Hulked out) guarded the doors to give Tony time to access the Helicarrier. The beeping alarm pounded in their ears as Tony frantically typed and the footsteps got louder. Then they were rounding the corner, dozens of armed alien-man-soldiers. Thor and the Hulk fought hard, buying Tony as much time as they could. Relief flooded their minds when they heard the ping of access granted and felt the Helicarrier begin to move again.

With one final swing of Mjolnir, Thor finished off the last few enemies and quiet settled over the bridge. Bruce de-hulked and stole a belt from one of the frozen soldiers to loop around his distorted pants. He walked over to Tony, who was leaning back in his chair, half-conscious.

"Tony, great job, how long should it be before we get there?" Bruce asked, noticing the pasty paleness of Tony's face.

Tony didn't answer right away, instead he held up his hand with three fingers sticking up.

"Three hours?" Bruce said, and received a tiny nod from the sickly scientist.

Tony spent most of the ride in a coma-like state, half in and half out of consciousness, and constantly pale and sweaty. Bruce worried the symptoms were worsening, yet he couldn't quell the scientist inside that was deathly curious as to the outcome of his invention. Thor finished gathering the agents and crew members on the bridge and ended up pacing back in forth in a steady rhythm.

The Helicarrier managed to arrive in only two and a half hours and settled itself hovering over Stark Tower. Bruce knew SHIELD would be getting hundreds of calls from the air force, the government, and all the planes that were flying over New York for the violations they were committing. He shrugged it off and began wheeling Tony off the bridge and out to the deck of the Helicarrier.

They were met with a troop of the aliens from before, standing in perfect ranks. There was a total of sixteen opponents, Bruce noted. Tony had pulled himself awake as best he could, although his eyes continued to droop.

A man, tall and skinny, dressed in all black with a hint of green, stepped out of the crowd of aliens. He was wearing a mask that perfectly silhouetted his face. A sharp chin and perfectly cut cheekbones around a lean nose. Bruce felt a memory struggling to surface, but pushed it down to focus on the current event.

"I see you took the hint. Very well done, and with the smartest one nearly dead! It's a shame he wasn't frozen as well." The man stood still with his hands behind his back, although they couldn't see his eyes, they could feel his cold gaze, it felt almost, familiar.

"What do you want with us? Foul beasts." Thor boomed, hefting Mjolnir in his hand in case a fight broke out.

"I am simply taking control of your devices and using them to play a little game. Can't you see…." His voice faded and Tony's vision blurred for a second. He tried to blink and focus but his head hurt and he felt like he was emerging from a dream.

"Should wake up for-"

"Sometime soon if that-"

"What about-"

"Hey look-"

Tony heard different voices filtering through his mind, but he couldn't focus on one individual and they continued to cascade around him. The image of the unknown man in front of him was fading, and he felt like it was being replaced with something else. The wheelchair he was in suddenly felt like nothing, as though he were floating, but then it was just a wheelchair again as gravity reasserted itself. He turned in his seat, and reached out to Bruce, trying to form a word in his mouth, but Bruce and Thor faded and blew into the wind like dust, as though they were never there to begin with. Tony shook his head and the pain became a pounding that was so overwhelming to his body that he completely shut down. Descending into darkness and peace.

Tony felt calm, serene almost. Floating on an infinite cloud of nothing. A smile touched the corners of his mouth.

"Tony! Tony! Is he awake? Did you see that? Tony!" Muffled shouts and hopeful words pulled Tony out of his peace. He blinked and squinted as the light brightened, as though a shadow had moved away from the sun. He turned and found he was floating in a giant glass tube. When he tried to speak, he realized there were multiple tubes reaching there way down his throat and through his nose. Red lights flashed in the muffled noise of the blurry world around him. He pounded on the glass and choked on the tubes. His vision would not focus and his eyes stung from whatever was in the liquid supporting him.

The lights flashed green once and Tony felt the liquid begin to drain as he floated lower. When his feet touched the cold metal grate at the base of the tube he tried to remain standing, but found that his legs would not support him. The remaining water had turned a sickly red color as Tony realized he had pulled open a wound in his side. He crumpled to the base of the tube, leaning on the wall, eyes closed.

Tony faintly registered the cold air and loud hiss as the tube decompressed and opened. He barely remembered being hefted onto a bed and wheeled to another room. The only thing he was focusing on was Pepper. She was there. Along with the rest of his team. Moving again, not frozen. Tony received an IV in the crook of his elbow and things faded for a while. The tubes were removed and he felt the cold air in his lungs once more.

Then he drifted off once more.

* * *

**What could have possibly happened?! Was this too crazy for you? Tell me in a review please!**


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